What's going on with parents & sports in this day and age?!

[CityBoy415]

Pleasanton Preps: Sad situation with Amador Valley girls basketball
Coach's suspension questioned by parents, leaves Dons at odds
https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/ne...situation-with-amador-valley-girls-basketball

They got upset with the coaches decisions and hired a private investigator to investigate the coach? Might have been easier to hire a personal trainer to train the kids and help them get better smh...

 

[observer22]

Oh, the joys of coaching in 2018.

 

[damim]

As a HS coach for several years and a parent of a mediocre player who struggled for playing time and then a player who was a 3 year all league player in the past, I'm embarrassed to be associated w parents sometimes and I respect the BS that coaches deal with on a daily basis....

 

[NorCalScout]

Damim, I too have coached, been a referee and a father to 4 high school student athletes and 3 of them went on to play in college. The two worst areas in my opinion are the Tri-Valley as well as as Lamorinda. Parents biggest complaint in my years as a coach has always been playing time, without a doubt. To go to the extreme to hire a private investigator, well that speaks volumes of what I already knew, Tri-Valley parents just don't get it. I moved from the Orinda area to Pleasanton and see more Amador, Foothill, Dublin, Granada, Dougherty & Cal high games then anyone human should have to and in my season ending awards, Amador always seems to crack the worst parents and this just proves my point.

I guess they have to much time and money on their hands and they saw it in their best interest to get someone fired. I would hope that no one takes this job and I hope the parents of these kids are punished with an even worse option then what they had fired.

 

[togos]

whenever a team loses, just ask the Pleasanton parents. THey have all the answers. Strategy, playing time , who should be playing , their son and daughters are the best. Been like that for years in Pleasanton !! Not just basketball parents. All sports. I'm surprised any of the coaches stay in Plesanton unless you went to those schools as a player.

 

[laidbackcoach]

May come across as piling on, but from 2012 to 2014 I coached girls lacrosse. One of the worst issues I had was with Amador Valley parents at a JV girls lacrosse tournament.

 

[larry legend33]

This may be just anecdotal but from my perspective the worse parents are the ones who didn't play or if they did play weren't very good. I know plenty of ex college and pro players who are actually more level headed than the guy who didn't make the JV team. Just my observation. Sports got really bad when technology improved to the point whereby parents don't miss practices, scrimmages, and games. When I grew up my parents worked. They missed a lot of games. That was the way it was. And it was like that for a lot of people. In todays' world parents are like helicopters..... they don't miss anything and in doing so drive the coaches nuts.

 

[coach41]

This may be just anecdotal but from my perspective the worse parents are the ones who didn't play or if they did play weren't very good. I know plenty of ex college and pro players who are actually more level headed than the guy who didn't make the JV team. Just my observation.

There is truth in what you said. You know that many parents live vicariously through their kids. With one of the last youth / CYO teams I coached, I had a mom who kept telling me she wanted the best for her daughter because she never got those opportunities.

Of course, they also felt I was too harsh with their daughter (who was actually a decent player). I somehow stuck it out for 3 years coaching the team but decided to walk away. The parents probably helped me decide to quit but it wasn't just about them. I'd been volunteering for a long time and it was time to get some "me time" back.

There was a not so great post mortem to my former player and her parents:

After walking away from coaching for about 4 years, I came back and coached a couple of years for another school. One of the parents of this new team had a daughter the same age as the player I mentioned above. I was talking to the parents and she mentioned that the smothering mother was always following the daughter around to her activities even in high school.

Apparently, the mom and dad also divorced at some point too. Somehow the daughter made it through school and she's in the working world now. I am FB friends with her though I haven't talked to her at all.

It's a crazy world out there these days. In fact, at the time I stopped coaching (early 2000's), I think the AAU / Club world started filtering into youth and high school athletics in a big way.